Johnson Invasion

This past weekend we had the pleasure of hosting Jeremy’s sister and her family for a mini STL vacation.  While they were here they went to the Arch, City Museum, Science Center, ice skating in Forest Park and even the Magic House.   Since Jeremy was playing in the band this weekend, I enjoyed the extra company.  Saturday, Tyler and I tagged along and made our first visit to the City Museum. 

If you’ve never been, it’s a little crazy.  First, the building is huge and used to be a shoe factory. There are slides and tunnels all over the building, inside and out.  There is even a 7 story slide, which we weren’t able to go down because Tyler is too young to go by himself and he’s not allowed to sit on my lap.  So I got a workout carrying him and climbing 7 stories of a spiral staircase!  And then we rode the elevator down.

Tyler loved running around and playing with his cousins.  All three of them passed out from exhaustion on the way home.

This weekend we also transitioned into taking only 1 nap a day.  We’re still working on taking a longer nap in the afternoon and it seems to be getting a little longer each day as he gets used to his new schedule.  Today he slept almost 3 hours!

We had a great time with the Johnson’s and they are welcome anytime! 

So, who wants to come visit next?

Christmas toys

So, Christmas day we drove to Springfield to spend several days with Jeremy's family. We had alot of fun just relaxing and watching the boys. Tyler has two cousins, Caedman (6) and Keagan (2.5). All of them together is crazy. Monday we went to a bounce house and everyone had a ball. I'll post pictures of that as soon as I get them from Jeremy's dad. Here's a picture of the boys playing with pieces from a game called Tube-A-Ruba from the '80s. Look it up, it was a crazy '80s dance party game. The videos on youtube are pretty funny.


So, after a couple days of crazy, we jumped in the car and headed to Columbia to spend time with my family. Here's some shots from opening presents. Tyler finally got into it. I think the box was big enough he could really go to town ripping the paper.
Once we took the toy out of the box, he already knew what to do and sat down on the seat, even though it wasn't attached to anything. After he went to bed we tacked the instructions and got everything put together...now we just have to fit it in our car to go home.
The next morning he ran straight to it and likes to put his milk in the back cup holders.
My dad also got out a toy that my sister and I used to play with. I remember playing with this alot so we thought Tyler might like to play with it.So here I am showing him how it works.

It's a Christmas Miracle!

Our son doing calculus!Santa also brought a guitar for Tyler!Merry Christmas everyone! We hope the new year brings you much joy and happiness!
(don't you love our roaring fire on Christmas morning!)

Crafty

Tyler goes to a Mom's Day Out Program one day a week which gives me time to run errands, relax or sometimes take a nap.:) He really seems to enjoy it and always comes home with a craft. Below are some pictures of what he's made this year. The bottom left one is one he just made Tuesday. It's a hand towel with a Christmas Tree on it made out of his hand prints. We are so proud. :)

It's always the simple things

Last week we had another visit from our Parents as Teachers rep and she always has these homemade toys made out of things she finds at the dollar store. Most of them are for the kids to play with while being supervised and sometimes I take her suggestions. Here is one I thought was great and he loved playing with her's. So here's my version. I took an old plastic container (that used to have salsa in it) and cut small slits in the lid. Then I pulled out some short popsicle sticks I already had in my craft supplies. Put the lid on the container and Tyler puts the sticks through the slits to help develop his fine motor skills. He loves it! And actually sat still for 10 minutes playing with this. Once he puts all the sticks in he hands me the whole thing so I can dump them out and he can start over.